The Drawing Room Reconsidered
by suzyblue03
Summary: What if Lord Franton had plead his case just a bit longer? Complete.
1. The Drawing Room

**Disclaimer: A Matter of Magic is property of Patricia C. Wrede, **

**I just like to dabble in her world. **

Lord Franton was waiting for her in the drawing room. He looked up and smiled as she entered. Kim swallowed again, and he must have seen something in her expression for his smile became uncertain at the edges. "Miss Merrill-"

"Mairelon told me-I mean, I know-" Kim's face grew warm and she stuttered to a stop, unable to think of a way to phrase what she wanted to say. She should have just let him speak, instead of trying to refuse him before he'd even begun.

The marquis looked at her. His eyebrows flew up and his expression stiffened slightly. "Am I to understand that you are aware of my intentions, but are not willing to entertain my offer?"

"That's it," Kim said with relief.

There was a pause. "May I inquire as to the reason?"

Kim hesitated, searching for away of expressing her difficulties that would be neither insulting nor wounding. "We'd both end up being miserable. I'm no wife for a gentry cove."

"Is it your background, then?" Lord Franton smiled and shook his head. "That need not worry you. You're a wizard now; what you were before does not matter to me."

"Yes it does," Kim said softly. "Because part of the time you're sorry about it, and part of the time you think it makes me interesting, and part of the time you ignore it. But you never _forget _it." Mairelon was the only Tiff who truly didn't care that she'd been a street thief . . . but she'd best not think of him just now.

"I do not-" Lord Franton cut off his automatic denial before it was well-launched. He considered for a moment, his lips pressed tightly together, then looked at Kim once more. "I think I see what you are getting at," he said with reluctance.

"You never really forget it," Kim repeated. "And I don't think you ever would."

"I could try,"he offered tentatively. "That is, if your sentiments are such that you would reconsider. . ."

Kim stared at her hands; despite everything she and Mairelon had discussed the night before now that that Lord Franton was standing before her the offer was truly tempting. She had known for some time that she could not remain Mairelon's ward forever, and marrying Lord Franton was by far the most comfortable of her options.

Taking advantage of her hesitation Franton took Kim's hands in his. "Perhaps in my desire to make sure I was the first to make you an offer I acted hastily. If you would be so kind, I would beg that you forget that I was so rash as to make you an offer so early in the season when we are so little acquainted. Please allow me to court you Miss Merrill, and let us determine whether I can forget your background and whether you could learn to love me."

Kim swallowed. Could she do it? Could she love Lord Franton? She did not _dis_like him, after all. Looking up at him she nodded. "It's not a promise of marriage," she clarified, "just to try and get to know each other better - to see."

Franton smiled, "of course not. I don't consider us in anyway bound to one another. Although, I do suggest that we revisit the subject at the end of the Season.

Before Kim could answer Mrs. Lowe entered the drawing room. "Lord Franton, it is a pleasure to see you."

The marquis stood and bowed. "And you Mrs. Lowe."

As they seated themselves Mrs. Lowe inquired to Lord Franton's evening plans.

"I am not engaged for the evening, ma'am."

"Then perhaps you would like to join us for dinner. It is informal but we have excellent cook."

"I would be most obliged."

Kim gritted her teeth. The last thing she wanted at that moment was to spend more time in Lord Franton's company. What she wanted most was for him to leave so that she could have a few moments to clear her head and try to understand what she had agreed to; instead she forced a smile and joined the marquis and Mrs. Lowe in making small talk.


	2. The Library

"Kim, a word please?"

Kim froze at the base of the stairs. Having just seen the marquis out she had been hoping to slip up to her room without talking to anyone. Dinner had been an interminable affair with Lady Wendall, Lord Franton and Mrs. Lowe carrying the conversation while Kim struggled to contribute enough to be considered polite. Marielon had eaten in near silence, speaking only when asked a direct question.

Lord Franton had requested an audience with him in the library before dinner, wishing to explain the agreement he and Kim had reached. When the two men had come to escort the ladies to dinner Kim had found herself unable to interpret Mairelon's reaction to the Marquis' news, or whether his subsequent distracted demeanor had been due to it or to the day's other events.

Now he stood in the door to the library, an indecipherable expression on his face, awaiting Kim's reply.

"Sure." She turned away from the stairs and slipped past him into the library.

Marielon closed the doors behind them. "Have a seat," he told her, pouring two glasses of brandy. He handed one glass to Kim then sat down across from her. "Did he threaten you?"

Kim jumped in suprise, "What? Who? Lord Franton? - no."

Mairelon nodded. "He didn't seem the type but I wanted to be sure." He peered at her. "You would tell me?"

"Yes."

"Good, good." He sipped his brandy and watched Maximilian in silence for a few moments, seeming to gather his thoughts.

Kim stared into her own brandy unsure of what to say.

Finally Mairelon broke the silence, "Kim, you are aware that you aren't required to marry. Not Lord Franton or anyone else."

"I suppose."

Mairelon raised his eyebrows, "You suppose?"

Kim sipped her brandy to put off speaking while she tried to find the right words. "I can't - I can't just stay your ward forever," she finally forced out. "And like you said last night - getting married, well, I'd be well established and all that. So I that maybe if I got to know Lord Franton better maybe I'd . . ." she trailed off staring into her brandy once again.

Mairelon set his glass on the library table and leaned forward staring at her intently. "I see. Perhaps there are some things I should make clear.

First, I chose to make you my ward because I wanted to and I certainly didn't do it with the intention of putting you out on the street as soon as you came of age. So, I see no reason you can't remain here as my ward as long as you and I both wish it." He paused and frowned, "Unless you are unhappy? If so I'm sure I could find someone else to take over your guardianship. Mother and Renée are both terribly fond of you. Or -"

"No! That ain't it. It's just the future." Kim's voice was louder than she intended, she just wanted him to stop to not have to hear the wounded undertone to his words.

Mairelon nodded, looking relieved. "Good. That's good." His voice had grown slightly rough. "As I said before you aren't required to get married unless you want to. That wasn't point of having you debut."

"What was, then?" Kim couldn't stop herself from demanding.

Mairelon blinked. "People were being rude to you. I wanted it to be clear to them who you were and how you were to be treated," he answered flatly.

"Oh."

He smiled slightly, almost sadly, at her surprise. "I believe the point I was originally trying to make was that you have years of magical study ahead of you before the College will recognize you as a fully fledged wizard. And you have a home _at least_ that long. As for what will happen then, I have no doubt that you will have many jobs open to you possibly including working for the College or the Ministry. At the very least you could hire out as a tutor to a wealthy family. You most certainly are not without options."

"Oh," Kim repeated. She didn't know quite what else to say. She had always known that being a wizard would be extremely useful but somehow it hadn't quite occurred to her that she could make a respectable career of it.

Before she could gather her thoughts there was a knock at the library door. "Yes, what is it?" Mairelon called.

"An urgent note from the Duchess Delagardie, sir," one of the footmen answered.

Mairelon jumped up and began to hurry towards the door. Suddenly he stopped beside Kim and surprised her by cupping her cheek in his hand. "Just don't do anything you'll regret."

Kim, startled beyond words, managed to nod.

Mairelon smiled at her then was out the door, taking the note from the footman and calling for his mother.


	3. The Ballroom

The next afternoon Kim was with Mrs. Lowe and a captive Mannering in a carriage racing from Tom's shop back to Grosvenor square. Kim had learned from Mannering that recasting the spell as the Grosvenor Square wizards planned would burn out Mairelon's mind and she had to stop it but the trip back to Grosvenor Square seemed to take forever, though Hunch urged the horses to a speed far greater than was really safe on the crowded streets. Mrs. Lowe sat stiff as a poker beside Kim, radiating disapproval but not saying anything. Mannering had recovered from his daze an alternated between glaring balefully at Kim over his gag and making terrified whimpering noises. On the whole, Kim preferred the glares; as long as he was same enough to glare, she knew that the wizards in Grosvenor Square hadn't completed their spell.

_It's a complicated spell, it'll take a long time. _But would it take long enough? The picture of Mairelon turned empty-eyed, grunting, and helpless haunted her. _Faster, _she though at the horses. _Hurry faster. _

At last they pulled up in front of the door. Kim was out of the coach almost before it stopped moving. She checked briefly at the base of the stairs at the sight of Lord Franton in conversation with Henry the footman.

"Miss Merrill!" Lord Franton called in surprise as she darted past them and ran up the stairs to the ballroom. As she tore down the hall, she heard a muffled feminine voice rising toward a climax, but she couldn't tell whether it was Lady Wendall's or the duchesse's. The duchesse was supposed to be last. . . . She flung herself through the ballroom door.

The air inside was heavy with poser; the sharp, glittering structure of the spell nearly complete. The Duchesse Delagardie stood in one of the triangular points of the star that Kim had watched the wizards preparing. Lady Wendall, Lord Shoreham, Lord Herring, Renée D'Auber, and Prince Durmontov occupied the other points, and Mairelon himself stood in the center of the star. The duchesses had her back to the door, and her arms were raised in the final invocation.

Kim hesitated. To interrupt now would shatter the spell, and the enormous poser that had already been poured into it would recoil on the wizards, doing nearly as much damage as Mannering's spell would. To let them continue would destroy Mairelon's mind as soon as he was linked into the duchesse's spell, not to mention the six spell casters themselves into the bargain. As soon as Mairelon was linked to the duchesse's spell . . . but if the duchesse linked her spell to _someone else, _instead of Mairelon. . . .

Without pausing to think further, Kim picked up her skirts once more and ran forward. Mairelon saw her and took a half-step to meet her , then stopped, plainly realizing that to move any farther he would have to step outside the star. Renée and Lord Shoreham saw her next and frowned; then the other wizards-all but the duchesses. As Kim reached the edge of the star, she realized that the duchesse had closed her eyes to speak the closing words, and a tiny corner of Kim's mind sighted in relief. At least she wouldn't accidentally distract the duchesse and cause the spell to shatter.

Kim made an urgent shooing motion at Mairelon and pointed emphatically to the floor outside the star. _If only he doesn't take a notion to get stubborn. . . . _Mairelon hesitated and glanced at the duchesse; he knew, even better than Kim did, the possible consequences of miscasting a major enchantment. Frantically, Kim gestured again for him to move.

On the far side of the diagram, Shoreham frowned and shook his head, but Mairelon's gaze was fixed on Kim's face, and he didn't notice Shoreham's gesture. _Move, move, get out of the star! _And finally, his eyes alight with questions, Mairelon nodded and stepped sideways out of the diagram. As he did, Kim stepped into it, taking his place.

Mairelon turned, an expression of horrified comprehension dawning on his face. He reached for Kim, but he was an instant too late. The duchesse spoke the final syllable and brought her arms down in a decisive movement, finishing the spell.

Power crashed down on Kim, filler her to bursting and beyond, burning through her mind. _Is this what it felt like to Ma Yanger? _The room went dark and she felt herself sway. Far away, a babble of voices broke out, but the only one she could decipher was Mairelon's: "Duchesse! The counterspell, quickly!"

Three words blazed across Kim's mind like lightning bolts across a darkened summer sky, and then the storm of uncontrollable power passed. Almost gratefully, she started to collapse. Arms caught her as she fell; she struggled mindlessly until she heard Mairelon's voice by her ear and realized the arms were his. Then she relaxed into unconsciousness.

Her insensibility could not have lasted more than a moment or two, for the first thing she noticed when she began to recover was Mairelon's almost panic-stricken voice in her ears: "Kim! Kim?"

The second thing was Lord Franton's equally frantic, "Miss Merrill? Miss Merrill!"

"Mairelon?" she said hazily through a pounding headache.

"Thank god!" Mairelon crushed her to him, kissing the top of her head.

Tugging her right hand free from Lord Franton's grasp she wrapped her arms around Mairelon breathing in his familiar scent of soap and chalk. "It worked."

"Worked!" Mairelon pulled back, grasping her by the shoulders. "Have you gone mad?" He gave her the smallest shake. "Do you -"

"My Dear," Lady Wendall interrupted, "I'm sure Kim had excellent reasons for this most interesting interruption." She looked at Kim expectantly.

"Mannering!" Kim said. She tried to struggle to a sitting positing but gave up when her had began to swim. "He ain't piked off, has he?"

"Mannering?" Lord Shoreham frowned. "You don't mean to say you've located to the confounded fellow! Where is he?"

"I believe he is currently on the lower stairs," Mrs. Lowe said. Richard's man has him in charge, and I expect they will arrive momentarily.

"Aunt Agatha, you amaze me," Mairelon said. "How did you come to be, er, involved?"

"If you will assist Kim to one of the sofas, where she may be more comfortable, I am sure she will explain everything," Mrs. Lowe replied.

Mairelon promptly picked Kim up and carried her to the nearest seat. She did not protest; the headache was beginning to recede, but she still felt shaky and weak. Mairelon took the seat next to her so he could put his arm around her to support her and she leaned gratefully into his shoulder. Lord Franton pulled up a chair on her other side a worried expression on his face. Lord Shoreham, Lord Kerring, and Prince Durmontov pulled up chairs for themselves and the ladies, and they all sat down and looked at Kim expectantly.

"Um," said Kim, trying to decide where to begin.


	4. The Drawing Room Revisited

After Kim had finished accounting her encounter with Mannering to everyone's satisfaction, and attempts to interrogate the man himself had proved useless, it was agreed that Lord Kerring and Lord Shoreham would convey Mannering to the Royal College of Wizards. There Shoreham could see that he was properly guarded while Kerring and the duchesse studied the spell that linked him to Mairelon and the other wizards in the hopes of finding a way to undo it. As soon as this course of action was agreed upon the ballroom became a flurry of activity as the wizards prepared to depart.

Kim stood intending to follow the others to the doors but a sudden wave a dizziness caused her to sway on her feet.

"Miss Merrill, are you quite all right?" Lord Franton inquired, wrapping an arm around her waist to support her.

Mairelon turned toward them frowning. "No. She's not."

"Please help her to the drawing room, Lord Franton," interjected Lady Wendall. "I'll have tea sent in to help shore up Kim's strength."

Lord Franton nodded in acquiescence. "My pleasure, Lady Wendall."

Lord Franton was silent as he help Kim down the hall and settled her on the settee in the drawing room. He spoke only after Sally, the maid, had served them tea and sandwiches. "What you did in there - it was very dangerous?"

Kim shrugged uncomfortably, "I suppose." Lord Franton set his tea back on the service, and leaned toward her. "What could have happened to you?"

"I could have been burnt out - unable to do magic - for a time, or forever. Or I could have ended up in bedlam."

"But you risked it?"

"Yes." "Mr. Merrill, he is very important to you?" Lord Franton was looking at her intently.

Kim studied her tea, gathering her thoughts, then looked Franton in the eye. "Of course. He is my guardian, my friend, and my mentor. What I did was no more than what I owed him. No more than what he would have done for me." And that she knew was true. Mairelon might never love her but he would always protect her.

Lord Franton looked at his hands, "I see. I apologize for any impertinence on my part, Miss Merrill. I suppose I am overwrought with worry for your safety."

Before Kim could respond Mairelon came into the room. Ignoring Franton's presence he perched on the edge of Kim's settee and took her tea placing it on the service. Gathering her hands in his he frowned, "you're cold."

"A bit," Kim admitted.

Mairelon called for a blanket and shawl as Franton opened and closed his mouth like a guppy.

"How's the headache?" Mairelon inquired tilting her chin toward the light to better see her eyes.

"Better, but still there."

"It will fade." Mairelon assured her in the tone of someone who had experience in the area. "Are you still dizzy?"

"Not since I've sat down."

"Good. We shan't have you stand up for a while then."

The maid brought in the blanket and shawl which he began tucking around her. "And no magic for a week. Hopefully by that time I'll be able to test you myself - if not, well, mother is more than capable. Right now however you need to rest."

"Yes dear," Lady Wendall suddenly joined the conversation causing Kim to start slightly. She had not noticed the woman enter room as she had been wrapped up in the sensation of Mairelon's fussing. "The exhaustion you felt after your ball will be nothing to this."

Kim nodded, already beginning to feel her eyelids begin to droop as Mairelon smoothed the shawl over her shoulders and she leaned her head back against the settee arm. As she slid into unconsciousness she heard Lord Franton taking his leave of the group.

~~*~~AMoM~~*~~

Two weeks after Lord Kerring and the Duchesse had succeeded in returning Mairelon's magic to him things at Grosvenor Square had settled back into a routine. Much to Kim's disappointment it was a schedule that included more teas, balls, and drives with Lord Franton than magic lessons. In fact as Mairelon spent most of his days _and_ evenings at the Royal College trying to help free the rookery wizards from Mannering's spelling Kim rarely saw him at all. Lord Franton, however, had become a seemingly constant presence.

Kim was aware that most of London Society took it for granted that their engagement would be announced any day. Lord Franton too seemed to be taking it as an inevitable eventuality. He had often begun speaking of life after the Season as though it were an event they were planning together. Kim, though, still had her reservations. She liked Lord Franton, and found him to be an amiable companion but she was not sure that was enough to build a marriage on.

They had just returned from a drive in Hyde Park and were taking tea in the drawing room when the Marquis started just such a discussion. Leaning forward he asked, "have you ever considered studying with anyone besides Mr. Merrill?"

Kim sipped her tea before slowly lowering the cup back to the saucer. "No."

"I don't mean to be forward," Franton said. "It is just that there are many good mentors available. Most of whom would place you in far less danger."

Kim set her cup and saucer down gently. "I lived most of my life in far more danger than Mairelon's ever put me in."

Franton frowned briefly. _He doesn't like be reminded of it. He really never will accept who I was. Who I am. _Then he smiled at Kim. "But you are a lady now. You shouldn't have to live your life in danger."

Kim bit back a snort. "I'm a wizard. The lady bit was just part and parcel. I wouldn't want to be trained by anyone else. Mairelon is one of the best. I'm lucky to be his apprentice." She picked up her tea and resumed drinking.

Lord Franton was not to be dissuaded. "Many women cut back in their studies after they are married. I am told that some even postpone it entirely for the first year or so due to being busy with setting up a household. It might be that a different mentor more accustomed to working with ladies would be more to your advantage."

Kim set her cup back down on the service with an audible clang. "I have no intention of cutting back in my studies. I'm going to be a fully trained wizard not some gentry mort who does nothing but gossip and attend boring teas and balls."

Franton leaned back in his chair. "You find them that tedious?"

Kim sighed, "yes."

"I see." Franton sat quietly for several moments. For the first time in their acquaintance Kim felt that he was actually seeing _her_ rather than just a pretty debutante with an exotic history. Finally, he spoke. "This, us, it isn't going to work is it?"

Kim shook her head. "No."

Lord Franton stood and bowed. "Then I won't waste anymore of your time."

Before Kim could respond he had left the room. She slumped against the settee cushions. _Why did I ever let them talk me in to this. I'm no lady and I never will be. My best shot at marriage just walked out the door and Mairelon doesn't love me. _She buried her face in her hands and began to cry.


	5. The Drawing Room Continued

Kim had not been crying long when someone pressed a handkerchief into her hand.

"If it's as bad as that," Mairelon inquired, "why didn't you just accept him?"

Kim sat up to find Mairelon crouched in front of her. She stared at him in bemusement.

"I passed the young Marquis in the entryway," Mairelon explained, as he took a seat next to her. "He didn't look like the party who had, er, done the jilting so to speak."

"I think we jilted each other." Kim used the handkerchief to wipe her eyes.

"I see. Or, rather I don't see." Mairelon studied her with concern. "Did Franton say something to upset you?"

Kim shook her head.

"You're sure? If he did I could challenge him," Mairelon's lips quirked. "Or turn him into a frog."

Kim laughed then surprised them both by beginning to cry again.

Mairelon gathered her into his arms and rocked her gently.

"What is it, Kim?" He asked when she had regained control. "If not Franton, what has you so overwrought?"

Kim played with the handkerchief. Trying to explain her tears without saying, _"I love you but I know it's hopeless, so..." _She settled on, "I'm just tired and maybe a bit homesick." Kim was surprised by the truth in her words.

Mairelon stiffened, "homesick?"

Kim nodded, "For Kent."

Mairelon relaxed slightly and took her face in his hands peering into her eyes. "You probably are exhausted," he murmured. "The season can be taxing even without..." His voice trailed off and he frowned.

"Mairelon?" Kim prompted.

He smiled brightly and stood offering her his hands. "Why don't you take an early evening? If you're still feeling homesick in the morning we'll discuss returning to Kent early."

"Really?"

Mairelon nodded. "Of course. I see no reason for you to finish out the season if it's making you this miserable. Now go to bed."

When she awoke the next morning Kim knew that she wouldn't be returning to Kent anytime soon - her head ached, her throat felt as though it was on fire, and when she tried to get out of bed the room spun around her. Wilson grabbed Kim by the arms and settled her back into the bed.

"You just stay here, Miss. I'll fetch Lady Wendall."

Mairelon bounded into her room a few moments later, seated himself on the edge of the bed and demanded an account of her health. "I was afraid of this." He sighed when she finished.

"Afraid of what, Dear?" Lady Wendall questioned as she entered the room with Mrs. Lowe close on her heels.

"Exhaustion. I have been . . .preoccupied and neglected Kim's health."

"It ain't your job." Kim protested; surprised to find that not even Mrs. Lowe bothered correcting her grammar.

"You are my apprentice and my ward. It most certainly is my job.

Thank you, Aunt."

Mrs. Lowe had approached the bed with a basin of water and several cloths, one of which she soaked and laid across Kim's brow. Mairelon soaked another and began pressing it against Kim's face and neck. It was surprisingly cool and Kim was startled to feel the tingle of magic. She squinted at Mairelon and saw that his lips were moving slightly.

"Arguing over blame is pointless," Mrs. Lowe pointed out. "Right now Kim needs a physician."

"I agree," Lady Wendall stated. "Shall I send Hunch for your friend Fredrick?"

Mairelon shook his head. "I sent Hunch around for him before I came down to breakfast."

Lady Wendall raised her eyebrows. "How presentient of you dear."

Kim started to ask who Fredrick was and why Mairelon had sent for him but she was feeling very tired and had drifted off to sleep again before she could manage.

The sound of an unknown male voice roused her. "That much power and she still retained her faculties? Simply amazing. Even more amazing that you've managed to keep it quiet."

"What's amazing about it?" Kim asked groggily.

A tall dark haired man about the same age as Mairelon who wore spectacles and a friendly smile answered. "Some people are born with innate magical ability - that is the ability to access and control magical power. However, not all magicians are created equal. Therefore even with practice some can do little more than light a candle. Others can manage much larger amounts of power - although usually only after years of training. For a first year apprentice to access as much power as you did in that power sharing spell and not be burned out - well, it's just remarkable. It indicates great magical ability especially with training. In fact I don't think it would take the fingers on one hand for me to count the magicians capable of it. I doubt even Merrill here could have done it at your age. With training my dear girl you will truly be a marvel."

"She already is." Mairelon said at the same time Kim looked at him and said, "you never told me any of that."

"I would imagine he was trying avoid you becoming overconfident," the man chuckled. "Now my Marvel, shall we see what is ailing you?"

"You're a leech? And a magician?"

"Guilty on both counts." The man set a bag on the side of the bed a pulled out a wooden tube with a funnel on the end. "If you can sit up for me I'm going to use this stethoscope to listen to your heart and lungs."

Kim looked to Mairelon who nodded and smiled. "Kim this is Dr. Fredrick Lyell. Fredrick and I completed our journeyman ship together before he decided to read medicine at Cambridge. He's the leading expert in ailments particular to magicians."

After Dr. Lyell had listened to her chest, and looked in her eyes, nose, mouth and ears he took her hands in his and muttered something in what Kim thought might have been Latin. She felt magic surround her like a comforting blanket.

"Now, I want you to reach for your magic. Don't actually try to cast a spell, just reach out. Understand?"

"Do you think that is wise?" Mairelon interjected.

"I wouldn't be suggesting it if I didn't, Richard. Now hush and let me work. Go ahead Kim."

Kim reached out and instantly felt a wave of exhaustion slam into her. "

"That's enough, Kim. Let go."

Gratefully Kim did as Dr. Lyell said and collapsed back against her pillows. Lyell muttered another Latin phrase and she felt the magic blanket fade away.

Mairelon moved to her side and scowled at the doctor.

Lyell rolled his eyes, "oh stop acting like a mother hen, Richard. I haven't done her any harm. Nor would I, as you well know."

Mairelon ignored the comment and demanded. "Well, what is your diagnosis?"

"The same as yours - magical exhaustion compounded by the physical demands of the season has resulted in a fever." Lyell stood and began placing his instruments back in the black bag before pulling out bottles of powder and liquid. "The fever may well get worse before it get better. I'll call in again after lunch and dinner to check in on her. In the meantime -" Kim let his voice fade away as he gave Mairelon instructions as to how to administer the liquids and powders.

Lyell was right, the fever did worsen. For the next three days Kim slid in and out of a delirium. In her few moments of lucidness she always found Mairelon by her bedside, mopping her brow with cool cloths, serving up bowls of broth, and administering Lyell's medicines. When she was deep in the delirium wandering the backstreets of London in her mind his voice was constantly there assuring her that she was safe, that he would never let anyone hurt her.

Kim's fever broke early in the morning hours of the third morning. Wilson and Lady Wendall shooed Mairelon from the room so they could bathe Kim and help her into a fresh night dress while a maid changed out the bed. She had barely settled back against the pillows when Mairelon was knocking at the door with a tray of broth and bread.

"You know you pay Wilson to do things like this?" She teased him as he spooned the broth for her.

"Would you prefer Wilson?"

"No. Not at all. I just wondered if you knew you didn't have to do it."

"I want to."

"It's not your fault I got sick Mairelon."

"Eat your soup."

"Mairelon."

"You are my apprentice and my ward. I should have been paying better attention - not," he paused seeming to try and collect his thoughts. "And beyond that you never would have overreached if I hadn't been impatient and insisted on trying the power sharing spell -"

"Mairelon?" Kim interrupted sternly.

"Yes?"

"Stop it. You're a frog maker not a fortune teller and everyone knows they ain't real any way."

Mairelon's lips twitched. "Aren't real not ain't. You've been slipping into can't quite a bit since you fell ill, you need to work on that."

Kim rolled her eyes, "you work on not being a sap skull and I'll work on sounding like a duchess even when I'm out of my head."

Even after the fever had abated Kim was confined to her room for several days. She slept what seemed to her and inordinate amount.

"You've exhausted yourself magically and physically," Dr. Lyell, who continued to call three times a day and insisted Kim call him Fredrick, told her. "Sleep is the best thing for you."

Nearly every time she woke, whether it was mid afternoon or midnight, Mairelon was either in the armchair by her bed reading or sprawled in the window seat asleep himself. The few times he wasn't there he had returned within minutes of her waking. As soon as he realized she had awoken, and the one time she hadn't woken him he had become ridiculously irate, he would send for food then they would either play cards or more often he would read to her from Sir Walter Scott's_ Ivanhoe. _Sometimes when Fredrick called they would tell stories from their journeyman days after he examined her and adjusted her medications, but mostly she slept.

Finally, Fredrick said that she was strong enough to leave her room and receive visitors. Kim wasn't too sure about the receiving visitors but a change of scenery sounded nice. Mairelon insisted on carrying her down the stairs to the drawing room even though she complained he was going to kill them both.

Miss Annabel Matthews was her first caller. The two girls had become something along the lines of friends as the season progressed.

"I'm so glad you're feeling better, " Miss Matthews exclaimed. "Everyone has been talking about your illness."

Kim gaped. "Why?"

"Because it's so romantic and tragic, of course. Everyone knows all about you and Lord Franton. How you were courting then he leaves London for the continent suddenly and you fall ill. Everyone is guessing as to who jilted whom, and why." She leaned forward with widened eyes, "I think they even have bets on it at White's."

"Toffs!" Kim groaned, falling back against the back of her sofa. "I had a magical mishap. It had nothing to do with Franton."

"Oh." Miss Matthews looked disappointed.

"You have to admit it would have been romantic." Miss Matthews said.

"I'll admit no such thing," Kim huffed. "The very idea that I'd waste away over, over, some cull. It's downright insulting."

Mairelon who was supposedly sleeping on the sofa opposite them suddenly looked like he wanted to laugh.

Miss Matthews frowned at her, "you wouldn't die for love, Miss Merrill?"

Kim thought about it for a moment. "I would die for someone I loved." Suddenly a vision of a storm of power overwhelming her mind flashed before her and she tried very hard not to look at Mairelon. "But I wouldn't die because of someone I loved, just wasting away for them because they didn't want me." It was true she realized. She wouldn't - not even for him.

"Oh, I think I see," Miss Matthews said in a confused tone. Then she changed the topic to society gossip, the most interesting bit of which was that Letitia Tarnower had landed Lord Humphreys. Throwing a glance at Mairelon ,who once again seemed sound asleep, Kim couldn't help but breathe an inner sigh of relief. After she was sure that Kim was completely up to date on the goings on Miss Matthews earnestly assured Kim that she would let everyone of her acquaintance know that Kim's illness was the result of a magical mishap and not the end of her involvement with Lord Franton.

After she had exited the room Kim threw a pillow across at Mairelon. "I know you're shamming."

He sat up laughing. "It seemed rude to announce that I had awakened in the middle of your conversation."

"Better to eavesdrop?"

He shrugged, grinning, "you never know what you may learn."

Kim's heart fluttered, "did you learn anything,"

Mairelon grew somber as he crossed the room to tuck the pillow behind her. Instead of retreating back to his side of the room he seated himself on the edge of her sofa and ran his hand down her take her hand in his.

Studying their entwined fingers he spoke in a voice she hadn't heard him use since that night in the library so many weeks before. "Kim. Kim, I, we do well together don't we?"

He looked up at her smiling crookedly, "I know you don't want to marry a toff but is there any way I could convince you -"

Kim drew in a sharp breath as she understood. "You utter goose wit," she gasp, "I meant the marquis not you. Never you. You sap skull."

Mairelon beamed at her, "then you would? Marry me that is?"

Even as the word "yes" burbled to her lips Kim held back tilting her head to the side and grinning at him. "As long as you can promise you ain't only asking because Letita Tarnower's getting leg shackled."

Mairelon's eyebrows arched. "Why," he asked in genuine confusion, "does everyone insist on discussing that Tarnower chit's affairs as though they concern me?"

Laughing Kim grabbed his cravat and pulled him in for a kiss.

End.


End file.
